The Master of His Fate
Mandela, adversity, and the discipline to lead with grace
The Art of Becoming is about turning obstacles into opportunities.
Drawing from philosophy, resilience, and real-life experiences, I share lessons on navigating adversity, cultivating wisdom, and living with purpose.
Life isn’t about avoiding hardships. It’s about becoming someone who thrives in it.
We won’t always have the answers, but we can search for them together.
Today, we learn about one man's 67-year fight for justice and equality.
I hope you’ll join me.
He endured what few people could.
Through his perseverance and commitment to equality, Nelson Mandela transformed not only South Africa but also the world. What he achieved bordered on the biblical, and what he endured was a testament to one man’s unwavering commitment to equality and justice.
His life became a celebration of one man’s capacity for good, a triumph over adversity and hatred, marked by his ability to forgive rather than seek vengeance and to search for hope rather than give in to despair.
Mandela spent 27 years in prison. Most of it on Robben Island—a barren rock off the coast of Cape Town, where prisoners broke stones into gravel under the scorching sun. He was locked in a tiny cell and faced daily beatings and starvation diets. The South African government forbade his wife from visiting him for years at a time. He was allowed only one visitor every six months and could write and receive just two letters a year.
But he never gave up hope. He always believed he was doing the right thing. Telling his wife in letters not to give up.
“Remember that hope is a powerful weapon even when all else is lost.” —He wrote in an April 2, 1969 letter to his wife, Winnie Mandela
In the face of relentless adversity, he found strength, not in hatred, but in learning. He used prison as a training ground, studying Afrikaans so he could communicate with prison guards. Mandela used language as a strategy to build relationships and understand his oppressors. He taught fellow inmates, who nicknamed Robben Island “Mandela University.” He meditated, reflected, and remained physically active. As his body aged, his mind sharpened.
Prison did not quell his desire for change. It enhanced his determination, fueling his fight “…to continue with this battle until victory was won.”
A quiet but powerful source of inspiration for Mandela during these years was the poem “Invictus” by William Ernest Henley. He recited it often in the darkness of his cell. He even shared it with other inmates. The final lines became a mantra:
“I am the master of my fate,
I am the captain of my soul.”
When asked how he endured, Mandela didn’t credit strength or ambition. He pointed to grace, forgiveness, and perspective. Never allowing hatred to win. He chose forgiveness over bitterness. He was, as he frequently said, “…an ordinary man who had become a leader because of extraordinary circumstances.”
And maybe that’s the lesson we need most today.
Perhaps we need to give the same grace and consideration that we expect from others. To learn that we can endure hardship with humility. That we can honor our struggle despite the ordinariness of our abilities.
We live in a world of short attention spans and outrage, settling for surface-level solutions like revenge instead of pursuing the long-term opportunity to forgive. But Mandela’s story is the opposite of that. He gave his life to the long obedience of a decades-long fight against racism and social injustice. He fought against the oppression of apartheid with dignity and discipline, and carried the urbanity of that grace throughout his life.
Nelson Mandela drew strength from the belief that he was part of a greater humanity, one that surpassed the ideology of his oppressors and jailers. And when he was free, he shared that strength and conviction with all of South Africa. Black. White. Everyone.
He entered prison believing in a better South Africa. He left it ready to build one.
Released from prison in 1990, many expected Mandela would want vengeance, especially white South Africans, who feared retribution against past injustices. After all, he was involved with the armed wing of the African National Congress. Mandela chose reconciliation over retaliation.
When he was elected president in 1994, he emphasized reconciliation between the country’s racial groups and created the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to investigate past human rights abuses. He served a single term, then stepped down after five years. He had no ego. No outsized personality. Just the integrity to do the right thing.
Mandela believed that suffering had refined him and that time in prison had deepened him. That forgiveness, not fury, was the path forward.
His example reminds us that to endure is not passive. We must not wait for change to happen. We must be the people who can lead it. That kind of strength isn’t forged in ease. It’s built in silence—under pressure, often without applause.
Every year on July 18, the world honors Nelson Mandela International Day—a global call to service. It is one day to act with courage, honor, grace, and kindness. To give 67 minutes of your time, honoring the 67 years Mandela spent fighting for justice and equality.
That’s the invitation. To be better than you were yesterday. To endure not just for your sake, but also for your neighbor, the family that lost their father, the unhoused man asking for food, or the child who is told she is no good because of the color of her skin or the God she worships.
You don’t need a grand platform to lead. You just need the courage and conviction to start. Remember,
You are the master of your fate. The captain of your soul.
Thanks for reading. Like Mandela, I hope you can turn your pain into purpose and struggle into strength.
Love to you and yours,
Michael
Love this meaningful lesson!